Book Review: “Effective First-Person Biblical Preaching” (By J. Kent Edwards)

J. Kent Edwards. Effective First-Person Biblical Preaching. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. 

J. Kent Edwards is a seasoned preacher who desires to help other preachers “preach the stories of Scripture in an irresistible, unforgettable, life-transforming fashion, and to do so without theological compromise…[for] if we cannot captivate people’s minds, we will never capture their souls” (12). He is convinced that first-person preaching is the best way to communicate such stories and thus he begins his book by offering a number of reasons why this is so, behind which is the conviction that the form of the Bible (i.e., the genre) is as inspired as the content and must therefore be honored in the style of preaching. 

As a good student of Haddon Robinson, Edwards then divides the labor of developing first-person sermons into the exegetical task and the homiletical task, however, he focuses on narrative texts which does make his treatment somewhat unique. Part one of the book, then, focuses on the exegetical task and offers an eight step process by which this can be accomplished. Part two focuses on the homiletical task and suggests a fifteen step process by which this can be accomplished. And while the reader may question this or that part of his overall twenty-three-step process, he must certainly agree with Edwards’ aim: to create narrative sermons that “convey exactly the same idea and emotional impact as the biblical story” (76). 

Edwards draws the book to a close by addressing a number of questions about first-person preaching, suggesting seven alternatives styles for presenting narrative texts, and providing several example sermons and useful worksheets. 

The strongest aspect of Edwards’ book is the argument he makes for the inspiration, value, and importance of biblical narratives. After reading the first couple of chapters I was convinced that not to preach these stories as stories is sin because they comprise so much of the Bible. Surely God did not falter in his choice of genre. I’m not sure I agree that first-person preaching is the best way to present narrative texts but his insistence upon this method does not diminish the strength of his broader argument. 

The weakest aspect of his book is that he does not adequately deal with the potential pitfalls of employing creative means to present the “the big idea” of a story. In fact, I must admit that I was surprised by how easily he left the details of the text behind when enumerating the various ways one can preach a narrative text. He seems to imply that once the preacher has discerned the “big idea” of the story, he’s free to present that idea in any way he’d like, even if it’s wrapped up in a completely different story (see his comments on “parabolic preaching” and “refurbished stories,” 137-42). However, the particular details of a story that lead up to and follow from “the big idea” matter very much and the preacher cannot simply dismiss them as window-dressing when he develops the flow of the sermon. 

I am certain that Edwards has a high regard for the text of Scripture and that he does not mean to demean it in any way, but I do think his book would be stronger if he gave more thought, and wrote a chapter, about the potential pitfalls of creative preaching and how to avoid them.